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Gossip Girl was supposed to be obsolete. By the time its anonymous Upper East Side dirt disher (voiced by Kristen Bell) issued a final XOXO, in 2012, ratings for the briefly generation-defining CW teen drama had nosedived—perhaps in part because the Great Recession had come along to make ostentatious wealth suddenly uncool. As young people weathered more than a year of brutal job losses, in 2008 and 2009, it became impossible to gawk at a character’s fresh-off-the-runway cocktail dress without wondering how many unemployment checks it would take to make such a purchase. Soon enough, with Occupy Wall Street happening a hundred blocks south, the adventures of a spoiled, backstabbing one-percenter clique no longer seemed so aspirational.
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But, just as younger millennials did with Friends—whose overwhelming whiteness, fat-shaming Monica story lines and casually homophobic humor absolutely wouldn’t fly in a contemporary sitcom about young adults—Gen Z streaming natives embraced the show without any expectation of realism. For these viewers, Gossip Girl was meme fuel that made headbands cool again, without anyone taking its wealth porn too personally. And now, as part of its ongoing courtship of this Netflix-loyal cohort, HBO Max has revived the brand. The reboot will premiere on the platform July 8, with each of six new episodes appearing weekly over the summer and six more scheduled for the fall.

Tailored to the more inclusive sensibilities of current teens, GG 2.0 is less “problematic” and more diverse in terms of identity, if not tax brackets. In place of blue bloods Serena (Blake Lively) and Blair (Leighton Meester), the central frenemies are girls of color: benevolent influencer Julien (Sacred Lies‘ Jordan Alexander) and her estranged, scholarship-student half-sister Zoya (Whitney Peak from Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), late of Buffalo. Julien dates the richest—and guiltiest, most socially conscious and self-effacing—boy around, Obie (Eli Brown sporting Dan Humphrey curls). Doing her dirty work are two Machiavellian deputies, Monet (newcomer Savannah Lee Smith) and Luna (Zion Moreno of Control Z); think of them as a two-headed Blair with expertise in brand management and crisis PR. But the queen bee’s real confidant is Audrey (veteran child actor Emily Alyn Lind), who looks like a long-lost Fanning sister, dates mellow Aki (model and skatefluencer Evan Mock) and has too many problems at home to obsess over high-school politics. Presumably to avoid glamorizing toxic masculinity, this cast’s lothario is Max (Thomas Doherty of Hulu’s High Fidelity), a bisexual party boy with two dads.

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Karolina Wojtasik/HBO MaxWhitney Peak, left, and Jordan Alexander in ‘Gossip Girl’

As in the original, parents are part of the story, though in the four episodes sent for review none of their personalities or story lines feel particularly memorable. More promising is a cohort of young Constance Billard School for Girls teachers whose leader is played by actor/writer/proto-influencer Tavi Gevinson. Disrespected, underpaid and vulnerable to unceremonious firing if students with powerful parents complain—how very 2021!—they’re desperate to take back control of their classrooms.

The revised premise, which I’ve been asked not to say much more about before the premiere drops, requires some willful suspension of disbelief. But if you can make that leap, the setup works surprisingly well. Suffice to say that this time around, the show is less about ultra-privileged mean girls destroying each other for kicks than it is about relatively decent people getting lured into those same nihilistic power struggles. And with Gossip Girl holding court on Instagram these days (though a Substack deal must already be in the works), showrunner Joshua Safran, who wrote for the original series, keeps the campy, Whartonian bon mots flowing both online and off. Happily, Safran’s team seems both aware that today’s image-conscious teens live in constant fear of social-media cancellation and, unlike so many hysterical cable-news pundits, realistic in their understanding that such a fate almost always turns out to be temporary.

Like an IG user on a following spree, the show introduces too many characters in the first episode or two for viewers to keep track of everyone. But where the update falters most in its attempt to bridge GG‘s diabolical past with its comparatively friendly present is in the casting. While the girls, especially Alexander and Lind, shine brighter than the mostly indistinguishable boys, no individual performance hits the soapy heights achieved by Meester or Ed Westwick (who played Blair’s slimy true love, Chuck). No couple—or throuple, as the case may be—has that original duo’s chemistry. Still, although it’s hard to imagine it becoming as addictive as its predecessor (or more recent teenage obsessions like Euphoria and Élite), the new Gossip Girl is certainly watchable. For a show that never should have outlived Lehman Brothers, that’s saying something.

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Unions warn workers at risk if face masks rules dropped

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Novak Djokovic beats Cristian Garin in straight sets to reach Wimbledon 2021 quarter-final - The Telegraph

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Ofcom will not investigate complaints over Dan Wootton's GB News show - BBC News

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Rain, wind from Tropical Storm Elsa possible in Carolinas this week. Here’s the latest

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Surging Covid and unlocking: does England risk being a variant factory? - The Guardian

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Tribe becomes key water player with drought aid to Arizona

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Man fatally shot in downtown Kansas City after apparent verbal altercation, police say

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Britain's biggest microchip factory sold to Chinese-owned tech firm - Telegraph.co.uk

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Unions warn workers at risk if face masks rules dropped - BBC News

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High cholesterol symptoms: The ‘minor growths’ on your face that indicate high levels - Express

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Kaseya hackers demand $70 million in massive ransomware attack

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China targets more tech groups after Didi crackdown - Financial Times

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Monday, 5 July 2021

Meghan Markle news latest: Duchess set for UK return with Harry in September with plans for another... - The US Sun

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Pope Francis Goes to Rome Hospital for Intestinal Surgery

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis went Sunday to a Rome hospital for scheduled surgery for a stenosis, or restriction, of the large intestine, the Vatican said.

The brief announcement from the Holy See’s press office didn’t say exactly when the surgery would be performed but said there would be an announcement when the surgery is complete.

Just three hours earlier, Francis had cheerfully greeted the public in St. Peter’s Square in keeping with a Sunday tradition and told them he will go to Hungary and Slovakia in September.

The Vatican said the pope had been diagnosed with “symptomatic diverticular stenosis of the colon,” a reference to a narrowing in the large intestine.
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A week earlier, Francis, 84, had used the same appearance to ask the public for special prayers for himself, which, in hindsight might have been hinting at the planned surgery at Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic.

“I ask you to pray for the pope, pray in a special way,” Francis had asked the faithful in the square in his June 27 appearance. “The pope needs your prayers,” he said, adding his thanks and saying “I know you will do that.”

Francis is in generally good health, but did have part of one lung removed as a young man. He also suffers from sciatica, occasionally having painful bouts of the condition that involves a nerve affecting the lower back and leg. That has forced him at times to skip scheduled appearances.

The pope had a particularly demanding set of appointments last week, including celebrating a Mass on Tuesday to mark the Catholic feast day honoring Saints Peter and Paul, and later in the week, presiding at a special prayer service for Lebanon. On June 28, he also had a long private audience at the Vatican with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Throughout all those engagements, Francis appeared to be in good spirits.

Gemelli doctors have performed surgery before on papal patients, including on Pope John Paul II, who had a benign tumor in his colon removed in 1992.

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F1 Austrian Grand Prix result: Max Verstappen wins back-to-back races at Red Bull Ring - The Independent

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27-year-old arrested in Los Angeles explosion had 16 tons of illegal fireworks, feds say

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Pub slams 'disgusting' person who booked 42 seats in its restaurant then didn't show up - Daily Mail

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‘It’s tearing us all apart’: housing plans in Sussex turn nimby against nimby - The Guardian

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Belize, Louisiana cousins meet at Officer Candidate School

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Pakistan says India was behind June bomb blast in Lahore

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Pope Francis in Rome hospital for scheduled intestinal surgery - The Guardian

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UK scientists caution that lifting of Covid rules is like building ‘variant factories’ - The Guardian

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Trump says he told DeSantis not to attend July Fourth weekend rally in Florida

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Cyprus: Four bodies found as 'most destructive fire' in island's history ravages mountain villages - Sky News

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At Least 45 Dead and 50 Rescued After Military Plane Crashes in the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — A Philippine air force C-130 aircraft carrying combat troops crashed in a southern province while landing Sunday, killing at least 29 army soldiers on board and two civilians on the ground, while at least 50 were rescued from the burning wreckage, officials said.

Some soldiers were seen jumping off the aircraft before it crashed and exploded around noon in the periphery of the Jolo airport in Sulu province, military officials said. Two of six villagers who were hit on the ground have died.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said rescue and recovery efforts were ongoing. The aircraft had 96 people on board, including three pilots and five crew and the rest were army personnel, the military said, adding 17 soldiers remained unaccounted for by nightfall. The pilots survived but were seriously injured, officials said.
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The Lockheed C-130 Hercules was one of two ex-U.S. Air Force aircraft handed over to the Philippines as part of military assistance this year. It crashed while landing shortly before noon Sunday in Bangkal village in the mountainous town of Patikul, military chief of staff Gen. Cirilito Sobejana said.

Military officials said at least 50 people on board were brought to a hospital in Sulu or flown to nearby Zamboanga city and troops were trying to search for the rest. “Per eyewitnesses, a number of soldiers were seen jumping out of the aircraft before it hit the ground, sparing them from the explosion caused by the crash,” a military statement said.

Initial pictures released by the military showed the tail section of the cargo plane relatively intact. The other parts of the plane were burned or scattered in pieces in a clearing surrounded by coconut trees. Soldiers and other rescuers with stretchers were seen dashing to and from the smoke-shrouded crash site.

The plane was transporting troops, many of them new soldiers who had just undergone basic training, from the southern Cagayan de Oro city for deployment in Sulu, officials said.

“They were supposed to join us in our fight against terrorism,” Sulu military commander Maj. Gen. William Gonzales said. Government forces have been battling Abu Sayyaf militants in the predominantly Muslim province of Sulu for decades.

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash. Regional military commander Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan said it was unlikely that the aircraft took hostile fire, and cited witnesses as saying that it appeared to have overshot the runway then crashed in the periphery of the airport.

“It’s very unfortunate,” Sobejana told reporters. “The plane missed the runway and it was trying to regain power but failed and crashed.”

An air force official told The Associated Press that the Jolo runway is shorter than most others in the country, making it more difficult for pilots to adjust if an aircraft misses the landing spot. The official, who has flown military aircraft to and from Jolo several times, spoke on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to speak publicly.

Initial pictures showed that the weather was apparently fine in Sulu although other parts of the Philippines were experiencing rains due to an approaching tropical depression. The airport in Sulu’s main town of Jolo is located a few kilometers (miles) from a mountainous area where troops have battled Abu Sayyaf militants. Some militants have aligned themselves with the Islamic State group.

The U.S. and the Philippines have separately blacklisted Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization for bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings. It has been considerably weakened by years of government offensives but remains a threat.

President Rodrigo Duterte expanded the military presence in Sulu into a full division in late 2018, deploying hundreds of additional troops, air force aircraft and other combat equipment after vowing to wipe out the Abu Sayyaf and allied foreign and local gunmen.

Government forces at the time were running after Muslim armed groups a year after quelling the five-month siege of southern Marawi city by hundreds of militants linked to the Islamic State group. More than 1,000 people, mostly militants and long-elusive Abu Sayyaf commanders, were killed in months of intense air and ground assaults.

Sunday’s crash comes as the limited number of military aircraft has been further strained, as the air force helped transport medical supplies, vaccines and protective equipment to far-flung island provinces amid spikes in COVID-19 infections.

The Philippine government has struggled for years to modernize its military, one of Asia’s least equipped, as it dealt with decades-long Muslim and communist insurgencies and territorial rifts with China and other claimant countries in the South China Sea.

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Taking aspirin can slash your chance of dying from cancer by a FIFTH - Express

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Delta variant will cause US Covid surges, Fauci says, as poll reveals vaccine resistance

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Tyson recalls 8 million pounds of chicken products after one person dies of listeria

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I'm on Carnival Cruise Line's first ship to set sail in over a year. Here are my first impressions on the vaccinated ship.

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Time to reexamine Frederick Douglass’ ‘What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?’

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Des Moines faces extreme measures to find clean water

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Driver dies after car runs off Midlands road and crashes into tree, SC cops say

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Hundreds of Afghan troops flee across border to escape Taliban offensive

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Man found shot Saturday night in Kansas City parking lot has died, police say

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Coronavirus infection rates, cases and deaths for all parts of Wales on Sunday, July 4 - Wales Online

Coronavirus infection rates, cases and deaths for all parts of Wales on Sunday, July 4 Wales Online
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Sunday, 4 July 2021

Haiti and Dominican Republic issue red alerts as reports detail Elsa’s damage in Caribbean

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Demolition to Collapsed Florida Building to Start Sunday: Officials

SURFSIDE, Fla. — A top Miami-Dade fire official on Saturday told family members of people missing in the rubble of a collapsed condo building that demolition workers planned to bring down the remainder of the building on Sunday.

Worries have intensified over the past week that the damaged structure could come tumbling down on its own, endangering the crews below and complicating the search for victims.

Fire Rescue Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah told family members during a morning briefing that the building would be brought down “as soon as possible. First thing tomorrow.”

But he cautioned that there “may be some hiccups.” A follow-up meeting will be held in the afternoon to finalize details of the demolition, which could be a precarious operation as experts enter the building to bore into the structure to install explosives.

Concerns that the still-standing portion could tumble have curtailed the search in areas close to that section, and shifts detected by monitors early Thursday prompted a 15-hour suspension of the entire search until engineers determined the site was safe to restart.

Jadallah said the remnants of the demolished building would be removed immediately after with the intent of giving rescuers access for the first time to the garage area that is the focus of the search.

Associated Press reporters Bobby Caina Calvan in Tallahassee, Florida, Terry Spencer in Surfside, Florida, Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida, and Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.

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